


Would You Like Me Better?

by Daisy_space



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Cuddles, Established Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries, Remus Lupin Needs a Hug, minor blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27583159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daisy_space/pseuds/Daisy_space
Summary: Bullies tease and hurt Remus, leaving him upset and insecure, good thing he has Sirius to comfort him and pull him out of his head.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 101





	Would You Like Me Better?

Remus walked down the corridor on his way back from the library, a couple of new books wrapped up in his arms, ready to curl up in bed and crack one open. Sadly, his daydream about toasty blankets and good books was interrupted by a catcall from Barty Crouch Jr.

“Oi, Lupin!” Barty shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth, “Nice face!” Barty and Amycus Carrow, who was trailing along behind him, snickered.

“Very original, Barty,” Remus said, not turning around to look at them. Even if he pretended to be unaffected by their taunts, it was still no use. Their words set off that train reaction in his mind about all the things wrong with him. It didn’t help that he had a new scar across his face. It started above his left eyebrow, and went diagonally across the bridge of his nose, stopping mid-left cheek. 

“Wait up, Lupin, we wanted to talk to you,” Carrow said, menace in his voice. Remus kept walking forward, determined to ignore them. “I said wait up,” Carrow said, about more aggressively, he grabbed Remus by the shoulder and whipped him around.

“What do you want?” Remus sighed.

“Snape’s been saying you’re a werewolf,” Alarms went off in his head.  _ Shit, shit, shit. _ “No one believes the git though, we were hoping we could hear the truth from the source?” Carrow smirked.

“Of course I’m not a werewolf,” He rolled his eyes, hoping his lie wasn’t too obvious. “That’s ridiculous, werewolves aren’t allowed at Hogwarts.”

Barty sneered, next to Carrow. “That’s right, I reckon they belong in Azkaban.” Remus tried not to flinch too visibly. “Or better yet, _ dead. _ ” Remus gulped. 

“Y- yeah,” He stuttered quietly. Thankful for the books he was holding tight across his chest to stop his hands from shaking. Figuring they were done with him, he turned and started walking back in the direction of the common room.

“Hang on Lupin, we weren’t done with you.” Carrow snapped, grabbing hold of the back of Remus’ arms, and wrenching them behind his back, causing him to drop his books. 

“Noticed you got a shiny new scar,” Barty said, coming up to Remus’ face, so close he could smell what Barty had for lunch on his breath. Remus couldn’t move, not with Carrow still keeping his arms pinned behind his back. 

“What a brilliant observation,” Remus said, trying for sarcasm, but his voice was trembling too much. 

Barty rolled his eyes, then went back to his intimidating manner, “How’d you get that?”

“Fell off a broom.”

“That’s what you say every time you get another one of those ghastly scars.” Barty countered. “C’mon, tell us the truth Lupin, we won’t tell anyone.”  _ Yeah, right. _

“I fall off brooms a lot, not a very good flier. Sirius is teaching me though.” Barty narrowed his eyes at him.

“That’s right,  _ Black _ is your little fairy boyfriend. How does he like your scars? I reckon he hates ‘em, who wouldn’t?” Carrow said, into his ear. Remus struggled against his hold.

“Don’t call him that.” Remus gritted out.

Barty spit in his face. “Shut it! You know it’s true. Tell us how you got your scars, and we’ll let you go.” Remus just struggled against Carrow’s hold more. 

Just as Remus was about to lose hope, he heard voices coming from around the corner. Barty glared at Remus, then reached up and dug a nail into his new scar, starting above his left brow. He dug his sharp nail in deep and dragged it all the way down the scar, creating a line of pain following it that felt too similar to the werewolf’s claws for comfort. Then as the voices got closer, Carrow let him go, causing Remus to stumble forward, and they strode off like they were never there. 

Remus quickly picked up the books he dropped, blood from the now open scar, dripping onto his eyelashes. He ducked his head down and walked quickly back to the common room, through the portrait hole. He stumbled through the common room, avoiding anyone’s gaze, tears stinging his eyes. He flung open the dormitory door, and shut it behind him, busying himself by putting away his new books, he didn’t notice anyone else was in the room. 

“Rem?” He heard Sirius’ voice ask timidly behind him. Sirius wasn’t timid. so he must sense something was wrong.

“Hi, love,” Remus said, not turning around to face him. Tears he was fighting really hard to keep at bay making his vision fuzzy. 

“Is everything alright?” He flinched as Sirius placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Moons?” Then Sirius carefully turned Remus around, Remus let him, he kept his eyes trained on his floor the whole time. “Rem!” He heard Sirius exclaim. “Oh my god, Rem, what happened?” Sirius said, delicately touching the reopened scar. It stung and Remus flinched. Tears started rolling down his cheeks. “Rem? Talk to me? Did it open on its own?” Sirius moved his hands so they were cupping Remus’ cheeks, carefully avoiding the open wound. Remus shook his head, looking down at his feet. He wanted so badly to just collapse into Sirius, Sirius always made things better. But fucking Barty Crouch and Amycus Carrow’s words were dominating his brain. “We should go to Madam Pomfrey, she’ll fix it.” Sirius tried to pull him to the door, but Remus wouldn’t budge.

“Can we just stay here,  _ please? _ You know the healing spell anyway. It’s not werewolf inflicted so you can fix it easily.” Remus practically begged, his tears stinging the still bleeding cut as they passed.

“Okay yeah,” Sirius pulled him towards his bed. “Let’s just stay here.” Sirius laid down on the bed, sliding under the covers holding them open for Remus to follow. Remus toed off his shoes and crawled into the bed, curling up into Sirius’ side, resting his head on his chest. Then the small trickle of tears turned into sobs. Sirius pulled the covers over them and wrapped his arms around him. Sirius’ embrace felt safe and warm. And he knew he shouldn’t let Barty and Carrow’s words affect him so much. But he was scared. Scared they had figured out his secret. Scared they were going to send him to Azkaban. Scared Sirius really did hate his scars like they said.

He curled into Sirius tighter, trying to shelter himself in Sirius’ arms. Sirius squeezed him with one arm around him, the other playing with his curls at the nape of his neck. Placing gentle kisses on head. Normally it was Sirius who would sleep cuddled up into Remus, but right now all Remus wanted was to be held by Sirius, to be protected by him. 

“Who did this to you, Moons? Why would someone do this to you?” Sirius asked after Remus’ sobbing had calmed down a bit. 

“Barty and Carrow.” Remus murmured, still pressed into Sirius’ chest. “Wanted to know how I got my scars.” He let out another small sob. “Snape’s been telling people I’m a werewolf. They wanted to know if it was true.”

“What’d you tell them?” Sirius asked, squeezing Remus a little closer to him.

“I told them that I wasn’t a werewolf, and that werewolves don’t belong at Hogwarts.” Remus murmured. “They said no one believes Snape anyway.”

“Rem…” 

“Then they-they said.” He started sobbing a bit more, thinking about being chained up in Azkaban like they said. “They said werewolves belong in-in Azkaban.” Sirius pulled him closer, Remus clung on tighter. “Or- or dead.” He near-whispered the last part.

“Those bastards!” Sirius said, sitting up abruptly, dislodging Remus from where he was resting on his chest. “I’m going to kill ‘em!” Remus winced, and Sirius looked back towards him, face softening at Remus tear stained face, with a still open and bleeding scar across it. “Later, I’ll kill them later. But first let me heal you up.” He gently cupped Remus’ chin and closed up the wound with a wave of his wand. “There, better. Now come back here.” He wrapped his arms around Remus once again, and Remus settled back into his chest, sighing contentedly. “I won’t let anything happen to your Re, ok? I won’t let them take you to Azkaban, I won’t let them hurt you. You’re just going to stay here with me forever if you have too.” Remus let out a small chuckle at Sirius' words. He was perfectly content to just stay cuddled up with Sirius forever.

Remus felt safe in Sirius’ warm embrace. Sirius smelt like home and being curled up with him felt secure. He was about to start drifting off when Barty’s words came creeping back up to the forefront of his mind.  _ “That’s right, Black is your little fairy boyfriend. How does he like your scars? I reckon he hates ‘em, who wouldn’t?”  _ A few more tears pricked his eyes. The logical part of his brain knew he was being stupid, but that part of his brain wasn’t really functioning at the moment. So in a quiet voice he asked, “Would you like me better without the scars?” 

Sirius loosened his hold on him, and instead brought his hands up to cup his face. Remus looked up at him, Sirius was smiling affectionately. “I’m going to assume you're just upset, and you don’t really think so little of me.” Sirius laughed a little, and Remus tried to laugh too, but it wasn’t very convincing. “Remus, I don’t know if you could tell, but I love everything about you. I love your laugh, I love your sarcasm, I love your cuddles, your kisses. I love your jumpers, I love how smart you are. How you have every reason to hate the world and everyone in it, but you choose to love instead. I love compassion, how you always look for the best in people. And I  _ do  _ love your scars. In fact I think they might just be my favourite part about you.” Sirius proclaimed.

Remus scoffed, but couldn’t keep the smile off of his face. “Okay, it was believable until the last part.”

“What’s not to believe about the last part? Is it so hard to believe your scars are beautiful?” Sirius said, running his fingers over Remus’ scars. The new one, the old ones, the little ones, the big ones, with a gentle touch. “Cause they are Rem, they’re so beautiful.  _ You _ are so beautiful. They make you look very mysterious, very devil-may-care. They’re unique and special and they’re just  _ you. _ And I love everything about you.” Sirius emphasized his sentence with a kiss on the top of his head. “And Rem, nothing could make me love you less. I love you with your scars. I’d love you the exact same without. I’d love you if you had a beard to your knees. I’d love you if you were green and scaly. I’d love you no matter how you looked Rem.”

Remus smiled up at Sirius, a real, genuine smile, “Even if I looked like Snape?” He teased.

“Oooh,” Sirius winced. “I might have to draw the line at Snape.” He shuddered. “It’s a good thing you look nothing like him.You’re much more handsome.” Sirius declared, squeezing Remus tight, and kissing his curls.

Remus sighed, content, and rested into Sirius’ chest. This was everything he’d never thought he’d have. His whole life he never expected someone to love him for everything he was. He never expected to be able to cry against a lover’s chest, without them making fun of him. But with Sirius he could. He could do whatever he wanted with Sirius. He was perfectly free, and he wouldn’t change it for a minute. 

“I love you Sirius, so much.” He murmured, beginning to drift off to sleep as Sirius continued to stroke his hair.

“I love you more.” Sirius murmured, kissing the top of his head.

“Not possible.” Remus protested, eyes closing.

Sirius gave a light laugh. “We’ll call it a tie.” He gave Remus a gentle squeeze, and continued to run his fingers through his curls. “I really do love you, Moony.” 

“I know.” Remus said, voice filled with sleep. Then he drifted off to sleep, safe in his love’s arms. Far away from anyone who wanted to hurt him. Just safe and warm, and feeling so, so loved. 


End file.
